After a group of treasure hunters ventured into the forbidden Valley of Rainbows in New Guinea, one of them brought a giant opal with him back to Japan, not knowing the precious stone was actually the egg of Barugon. After being unintentionally incubated by an infrared lamp, Barugon hatched from his egg and came ashore in Kobe, tearing the city apart with his extending tongue and rainbow death ray and freezing entire blocks with the chilling liquid released from his tongue. Barugon reached Osaka and confronted Gamera, and defeated him after freezing him solid. After withstanding multiple failed attempts by the JSDF to destroy him, Barugon was attacked by Gamera once again, this time being dragged to the bottom of a lake to his death. In Gamera: Super Monster, Barugon was resurrected by the evil space criminal Zanon to fight Gamera, but was defeated once again.

Design

Barugon is a gigantic quadrupedal reptile, with reddish-brown scaly skin, sharp teeth, a long horn on his snout, smaller horns above his eyes, and a long whip-like tail. He has two rows of short spikes running down his back, which begin to glow when the creature is ready to attack. Barugon also possess a very long, stiff tongue with a clubbed tip, and has purple blood. His eyelids open and close sideways rather than up and down.

Origins

Barugon is a reptilian monster whose egg was found inside a cave in New Guinea. Mistaken for a large opal, the egg was transported back to Japan, but was left underneath an infrared lamp while on a ship. The radiation from the lamp both induced the creature to hatch and caused it to grow to an unusually large size rapidly.

History

In ancient times, Barugon's egg was placed in a cave on his native island of New Guinea. Hundreds of years later, an expedition to the Island to get the egg (thought to be a giant opal) was undertaken. The egg was then taken back to Japan to be sold. As the ship docked in Osaka one of the sailors left it under an infrared lamp meant to cure his jungle foot fungus to go play poker. While the sailors were gone, the lamp incubated the egg and it hatched into a baby Barugon. It then grew to full size, causing the boat to explode. Barugon then headed into downtown Osaka. As it rampaged, the military attempted to destroy it with a missile strike but Barugon destroyed it with his rainbow ray. The Radiation of the ray attracted Gamera. The two titans clashed, and just when Gamera got the upper hand, Barugon froze him solid. With the military and Gamera out of the way Barugon left Osaka and headed for Tokyo. The military tried to lure Barugon into a deep lake, knowing he would drown in fresh water, with a large diamond on two occasions, the second attempt applying infrared light, but sadly, both failed. Just as all hope seemed lost, Gamera emerged from his icy prison and began to fight Barugon. Gamera successfully defeated Barugon by dragging him deep into the lake. As Barugon was pulled down into the water, he began to violently bleed, and soon drowned in the icy depths.

Barugon would later make an appearance in Gamera: Super Monster as one of the monsters revived by the alien mastermind Zanon, and was the last monster to engage in battle with Gamera. Like before, he was eventually defeated. Barugon's appearance in this film was made entirely with stock footage.

Abilities

Extendable Tongue

Barugon possesses an incredibly long extendable tongue, which he can fire from his mouth like a huge battering ram to knock opponents over or strike targets from a distance.

Chilling Liquid

Barugon can release Chilling Liquid (冷凍液, Reitō-eki) from the tip of his extendable tongue. This liquid takes the form of an icy mist, and can freeze objects or opponents completely solid. Gamera was particularly susceptible to this liquid, as it left him frozen and immobilized for a period of eight hours.

Rainbow Death Ray

Barugon's most notable ability is a rainbow that he launches from the spikes on his back, known as the Rainbow Death Ray (殺人虹光線, Satsujin Niji Kōsen). This rainbow is actually an incredibly powerful attack that can destroy entire lines of missiles being fired at Barugon or damage buildings or enemies.

Intelligence

Barugon is actually a deceptively intelligent creature, and uses his cunning to withstand two of the JSDF's attempts to kill him. When the JSDF used a gigantic mirror to reflect Barugon's rainbow death ray back at him, Barugon realized his mistake and consciously chose to stop using the attack. Another plan involved luring Barugon into a lake with a diamond. However, Barugon used his extendable tongue to recover the diamond and avoided wading out into the lake.

Weaknesses

Barugon's rainbow death ray can be reflected by mirrors, and if reflected back to Barugon will severely injure him. Barugon's most critical weakness is to fresh water. If Barugon comes into contact with fresh water, it will burn his flesh and cause him to bleed profusely. The JSDF used artificial rainfall to keep Barugon restrained and at bay. Barugon is ultimately killed when Gamera drags him to the bottom of a lake and drowns him.

Video Games

Comics

In the Kadokawa manga adaptation of Gamera vs. Barugon, Barugon's story is adapted to fit in with the Heisei series of Gamera films, featuring a new, more powerful version of Barugon. An expedition headed deep into a cave, where they discovered a giant skeleton with a gem in its skull. The expedition force went mad, and tried to kill each other, with the survivors taking the gem to the surface. This gem quickly hatched into Barugon, and he then attacked the JSDF with his icy breath. When warships come to attack him, he retaliates using his famous rainbow ray. Gamera, after learning from Asagi of Barugon's assault, came to fight. Gamera broke Barugon's tail using his fireballs. It is discovered that the Barugon has a weakness to water when he tries to escape after being thrown into Tokyo Bay. He freezes Gamera, and goes about freezing Tokyo. Eventually, Gamera thaws out, and the two fight on an iceberg made by Barugon. Although Gamera is gravely wounded during the battle, Barugon is blown off the iceberg by Gamera's fireballs and sinks into the sea.

Trivia

References

This is a list of references for Barugon. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]

Its quite obvious that he is just a rip-off of Baragon, right down to his name and his appearance, but I still really like this guy. His abilities are strange and unique (he fires a rainbow out of his back!) and he can sucker-punch things with his tongue. That's amazing.